Herschel Walker, President Bill Clinton, Kobe Bryant, Allyson Felix and Matt Kemp. (@billclinton)
By Jon Weisman
Matt Kemp joined a series of discussions about the future of kids and sports at the Clinton Health Matters Conference at La Quinta on Monday. Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com has more.
… According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study, children ages 8 to 18 spend more than 7½ hours a day in front of a screen (a television, computer or playing video games). It’s a staggering figure that’s contributed to the United States having one of the highest child obesity rates in the world. A 2012 American Medical Association study found that obesity in children ages 6 to 11 has doubled in the past 30 years. Among adolescents ages 12 to 19, it has tripled.
“This may be the least active generation of young people in history,” Clinton said. “The problem is that this can have lasting, damaging effects on all of them and actually wind up shortening their life expectancy. So we’re doing this because there are simple solutions to this problem that will pay massive dividends.”
Bryant and Clinton discussed the causes of the epidemic as well as ideas and solutions to tackle the problem. Their discussion was moderated by Mike Greenberg, host of ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike,” and will be broadcast on Feb. 9 on ESPN2, along with interviews conducted by Olympian and ESPN soccer analyst Julie Foudy, and a panel discussion involving Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix, Olympian and former NFL star Herschel Walker and United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun that was moderated by Aspen Institute Sports and Society director and ESPN contributor Tom Farrey.
The panel discussed several issues, including inequitable access to sports across socioeconomic classes, strategies to make sports and fitness relevant and fun for a generation of kids with more entertainment choices than ever before, and the increasing specialization and professionalization of youth sports that often leads to early burnout and saps the joy from competition. …
… Kemp spoke of playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic in 2006 and seeing kids playing baseball late into the night, having the time of their lives, and how that reminded him of his childhood, playing with other kids in the neighborhood well after dark, until his mom finally made him come inside. …
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